Results 11,461-11,480 of 13,375 for speaker:Pat Rabbitte

Programmes for Government. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: What about Christmas trees for the public?

Programmes for Government. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: The Minister could get an advertisement out of that going in his own constituency.

Leaders' Questions. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: I am sure the Taoiseach will join me in deploring the circumstances in which 13 Latvian workers were abandoned on a small island off the coast of Skerries. This is part of a pattern. It is the latest, but most extreme example of the casual regular everyday exploitation of immigrant workers, in particular poorly paid workers. The case history is well established. In the case of Gama, it was...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Can we deal with the facts? The number of labour inspectors has not yet been increased from 20 to 31. A recent response to a parliamentary question made it clear that there were sixteen and a half inspectors. Just four of the ten new posts mentioned by the Taoiseach have been filled. Therefore, there are twenty and a half labour inspectors, in my language. We are not talking about the...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: As far as I understand it, the extent of the abuse of the underclass in that country is not as bad as what is going on in this country.

Leaders' Questions. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Many people from other countries, who are working in domestic service, are prisoners in the homes of this country's nouveaux riches. They are being exploited and abused as they work for long hours to do the most menial of tasks for the poorest of pay. Such abuse is not confined to sections of the construction industry, Irish Ferries and Gama Construction. The Minister promised portable work...

Leaders' Questions. (8 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Does the Taoiseach know that domestic service is exempt from the Employment Equality Acts?

Written Answers — Humanitarian Assistance: Humanitarian Assistance (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Question 53: To ask the Minister for Defence the resources he made available to the Governments of India and Pakistan following the 11 October 2005 earthquake; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32005/05]

Order of Business. (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: On a number of occasions the Government has promised regulations to provide for a code of conduct for senior public servants leaving the employ of the State. Following a second county manager taking up a position with a prominent developer immediately after retiring, can I ask the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform if the code of conduct is imminent, prepared or likely to be...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Hear, hear.

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Having regard to the terms of the Government amendment, which I support, I will not be moving the amendment tabled in my name and those of my Labour Party colleagues. Having regard to the Sinn Féin motion, it seems the party still lives in an alternate reality, with its own timeline and its own rules of cause and effect. In our reality, the provisional movement failed to live up to its...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: It is that sense of permanent crisis, however, that makes normal politics impossible and allows extremism to thrive. In this motion, Sinn Féin calls for the re-establishment of the institutions of the Agreement at the earliest date and the Labour Party supports that call. However, given recent and not so recent events, it is reasonable to conclude that Sinn Féin's political agenda is not...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Sinn Féin has never demonstrated any real interest in a workable devolved government for Northern Ireland. It barely involved itself in the negotiations of the strand one arrangements of the Good Friday Agreement. It has shed crocodile tears about the lack of an assembly. Participating in a "partitionist" assembly is largely irrelevant to its main project, namely, the drive for Irish unity.

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Its tactics are mistaken for at least two reasons. First, as regards Irish unity, as the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform has stated, I too am a supporter. Partition has been disastrous for this country, on both sides of the Border. It generated two dysfunctional and confessional entities which at times were almost mirror images of each other. As the events of last week have...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: While the consequences of partition for the North were uglier and more violent, this was only because the numbers stacked up very differently and because there were those who believed the Border could be eradicated from the map through terror, destabilisation and economic misery. Although I favour the unity of all Irish men and women within a polity generous enough to accommodate them all, I...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Now that they have finally decommissioned their weapons, republicans must follow the example of all other democratic parties North and South and commit themselves to creating a fully lawful and democratic society in Northern Ireland, one where the rule of law dominates and where all criminal activity is at an end. It is simply unacceptable to have a significant political party organised on...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: ——not participating in or supporting policing arrangements in Northern Ireland. Sinn Féin members are always quick to tell us about the sacrifices they have made and the difficulties they have faced each time they are dragged forward for the sake of political progress. However, they must recognise that, in doing so, they have benefited immensely, often at the expense of true democrats...

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: ——and a lawful society is beyond question.

Irish Unification: Motion (Resumed). (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: Sinn Féin must now commit to supporting and playing an active role in the policing structures in the North. The 14th report of the policing Oversight Commissioner has again vindicated the stance of parties such as the SDLP, which took the brave decision to support the PSNI when republicans refused to do so. It is now clear that the overwhelming majority of the Nationalist community supports...

Order of Business. (3 Nov 2005)

Pat Rabbitte: The Taoiseach promised last March that the Seamus Ludlow report would be published within weeks. It seems there were difficulties in this regard, perhaps arising from the advice of the Attorney General in regard to named individuals and so forth. Now that it will be released into the public domain through the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights, it seems...